IT ALL BEGAN WITH PRINCE RUPERT

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When I met VladimÃ­r Krajina in the sixties of the last century in Canada, I told him that I saw him as the greatest Czech hero of the 20th century (as the youngest professor of the Charles University, he risked his life sending from a place in North Bohemia reports to the BeneÅ¡ government in London - such as that Hitler was getting ready to attack the Soviet Union.) Krajina was finally captured by a contingent of SS and held as hostage for any future negotiations with the Czechoslovak government. He was also the man who discovered the senders of the deadly parcels to the democratic ministers â a Communist secretariat in Moravia! In his voice as he was responding to my admiration, I detected the quiet strength of a man who knows how to create history and doesnât worry how the future may judge him, when he answered me that he ceased to be a hero when he left Czechoslovakia in 1948. That conversation proved one of the supporting arcs of my future (together with a few other moments of greatness such as this bit of Shakespearean (Hamlet) wisdom: âIt is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlingsâ.) It came at a time when the darkest clouds hanging above our native land were showing a few tears and when those of us living in the West were beginning to dream about the future-home but if that were not possible, in the countries where we found refuge.
Then I came across the story of Moravian Brethren, whose first mission to the Eskimos in Canada in 1752 with a prefabricated home ended in tragedy. Shortly after their arrival, the captain of the ship (who was one of the missionaries) and five other members of the crew were murdered. Twenty years later, a group of eleven Brethren, representing many nationalities but at least one of them, John Schneider, was born in Moravia. Eventually, with patience and dedicated service, the Brethren earned the Eskimosâ trust and by 1800 they had three stations in Labrador (at Nain, Okkak and Hopedale) and had baptized 110 converts. That is not the end of the Brethren story in Canada. On a quiet street in Toronto a congregation of Moravian Brethren sill worship according to the teaching of the Protestant group which didnât had its beginning in Bohemia almost six hundred years ago. They are the descendants of the West Indians converted to Christianity by the Brethren in the middle decades of the eighteenth century.

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Why did I write this book? It didnât start with a desire to write anything. It started with a desire to find supporting arcs for my soul badly damaged by World War II and the forceful placing of Czechoslovakia in the Soviet empire; by the loneliness of an exile searching for familiar voices in a foreign land. A wonderful, friendly land taking us in and offering assistance to build our home. Here I was with a fascinating story of a people born in the country I was born in, which helped me to find my bearing. And I thought I should share it.

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âProved to be unexpectedly generous starting with Slovak poet TomÃ¡Å¡ Å tÃ­tnickÃ½ who arrived on a ship Squirrel in what is now the harbor of St. Johnâs in Newfoundland on August 5, 1583. The purpose of the trip was to have a look at a piece of real estate in North America and declare it the Queenâs possession. Å tÃ­tnickyâs job was âto record in the Latin tongue the guests and things worthy of our nation.â Sadly, on September 9, 1583, on its return journey, the Squirrel capsized in a storm and everything and everyone aboard went down with it.â Then there was another incident, which could have ended just as badly. The Winter King just lost the Battle of the White Mountain and he and his wife, born English princess, were fleeing from Prague. In the excitement, everyone forgot their son, named Rupert who enjoyed, all too cradle of ivory and gold and precious jewels presented by the women of Bohemia. Fortunately, Rupertâs crying attracted the attention of the kingâs chambermaid who threw him in the last wagon leaving Prague in his parentsâ train. At that point, he was truly one of the long chains of exilesÂ from the land in the heart of Europe. One of us...And Canada was a bit closer to our heart.

I would like to invite you to evening that is organize by Plamen Press and Politics and Prose here in DC. Plamen Press, a DC based independent publishing company that focuses on printing English translations of literature from Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, is launching its second publication: The Sound of the Sundial by Czech writer Hana Andronikova.Â The event will be held at Politics and Prose at Busboys and Poets on the corner of 14th and V Street NW Washington DC.Â Â Everyone is invited to attend. Here is the link to the event.

Hana Andronikova is a brilliant writer who managed to publish only two books in her lifetime, The Sound of the Sundial being the first and Heaven has no Ground ,Â the second. Both books won the Magnesia Litera prize in the Czech Republic. She died of cancer at the age of 44 in 2011.

You can read more about her and the book from an interview with Plamen's editor in chiefÂ Rachel Feingold conducted by Radio Prague:

"In reading these essays, I feel as if I have had the privilege of taking a very long walk through a landscape of towns, villages, and open countryside with an old friend. What is home to the author has in a sense become a second home to me through his vivid personal descriptions and recollections. This is a book for anyone who relishes the discovery of new places in the context of their historical evolution into a modern world that requires serious attention to ecological balance and sustainability."âPaula Deitz, author of the book Of Gardens: Selected Essays

"This is a remarkable book, one that rescues a fragment of the world and offers us perception and knowledge of a very particular place, a cultural landscape of deep meaning, beauty, and value."âLaurie Olin, from the Foreword

The first book-length appearance of VÃ¡clav CÃ­lek's work in English translation, To Breathe with Birds delves into the imaginative and emotional bonds we form with landscapes and how human existenceâa recent development, geologically speakingâshapes and is shaped by a sense of place.

The Easy Ones isÂ a police-procedural murder mystery set in the US and written by Slovak-American author Charles P. Juraska of Romeoville, Illinois. Character-driven fiction, The Easy Ones is Juraska's debut work. Available in softcover (amazon.com), as a Kindle ebook (amazon.com/kindle) and as a Nook ebook (bn.com/nook).

Hello,It is my pleasure to announce the release of a new Classical National Fairytale by Božena NěmcovÃ¡ available as a digital download in two versions: the Czech original and its English translation, Kdo je hloupějÅ¡Ã­ or Who's More Foolish. For an audio sample, please visitÂ cdbaby.com/cd/zuzannahlarkÂ where you can purchase all CDs, and their digital siblings. Also, feel welcome to all visual versions on youtube, or visitÂ zuzannah-lark.netfor much more...

Either CD "PRAGUE - BRNO" with six beautiful cello compositions and/or CD "MAKANNA" with wonderful orchestra music based on magic novel by Jewish writer Jiri Weil. Concerts were held under the auspices of Vaclav Havel and Sir Tom Stoppard.

Special promotion just before the Christmas: all orders till 20th December 2013 free shipping & handling fees!

Prague-based Canadian artist Jessica Serran has spent the last two and a half years walking the âfield,â scratching around and creating a series of 10 paintings and a book titled Field Guide to the Czech Psyche. Based on nine interviews with Czech citizens, Serran, a self-appointed psycho-cartographer, delves deep into questions of identity, nationality and place and responds to them visually; weaving together thoughts, stories and gathered images and reflecting them back in landscapes that reveal the internal terrain that each person has travelled. Each landscape is based on memory, personal experience, and the stories that morph and change as they pass through successive subjective filters.

After I sent out the email two weeks ago about the crowdfunding campaign and the Field Guide to the Czech Psyche, I got into a lengthy discussion with my partner about crowdfunding and how very new it still is. (Stay tuned, he's got some things to say about this as well!) And that most of us are still trying to figure out what it is. And it occurred to us that it might seem strange to contribute or "donate" money to an arts project when one could use their money to help feed starving children, not the starving artist.

I can appreciate this. Fully. But here's the thing. You're not actually donating money, you're contributing to bringing more arts and culture to this country. You're giving others a chance to see this place through a new set of eyes. You're saying, "yes, we value self-reflection and we want others to intimately consider who we are and what our place here is."

AND, here's the best part... in return for your contribution you receive beautiful rewards of art and creativity in return! Like a signed copy of the beautifully designed book, Field Guide to the Czech Psyche and a postcard that is a piece of art in and of itself straight from my studio.

Or I'll make a custom painting just for you, like I did for each person I interviewed. Or, a drawing. Or we can have a long, lovely lunch together and walk along the Vltava together and discuss all the ways that you and your art matters and how we can bring more of it to the world.

It's a win-win situation for both of us. If you have any questions, please ask.

Â "Lidice Remembered Around the World"

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Sokol Falcon

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Ahoj SOKOL family and friends,

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Wanted to share this page of history via Toni Brendel,

I received the e-mail that was forwarded by Tony Jurik, President of the Wisconsin Slovak Historical Society, regarding the deaths of so many Sokol members in 1941.
I recently wrote a book, "Lidice Remembered Around the World" and in it I describe the plan to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich. "Operation Anthropoid" was carried out by one Josef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, a Slovak and a Czech, who had been trained as members of the Czechoslovak Army in Exile that operated out of London. Without the assistance of Sokol members who had formed the underground resistance group known as JINDRA, they could not have succeeded. Those who survived the slaughter when so many met their death earlier, lived to see Heydrich assassinated. Sadly, they paid the ultimate price, along with those people of Lidice. Czech Ambassador to the USA, Petr Gandalovic, spoke to us in Phillips, Wisconsin, USA where one of the two memorials to Lidice in North America happen to be. 2012 was for the 70th anniversary of the destruction of Lidice. There was a commemoration and memorial service. Phillips is my home town. He brought it to our attention that the heroes that assisted in "Operation Anthropoid" have finally been recognized as such by plaques bearing their names, that are posted nearby the Church where the paratroopers died in June, 1942.
Thank you for sending the information. It makes it so much more clear as to why the remaining Sokol members risked their lives, indeed, gave their lives, to assist in the assassination.
Toni Brendel, Author
"Lidice Remembered Around the World"

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